Tuesday, April 18, 2006

BALKANS 3.0 ZAGREB

26/03/2006

I woke up for fajr, and went back to bed. The next thing i remember was it was already 11.00am and i quickly went to the bathroom to have a shower.

If my memory served me right, we went home the night before by bus. There were simply too many people on the bus, and the driver could not be bothered with people not paying. I felt slightly uneasy being surrounded by drunkards of all kinds. Football supporters, nightclub goers, and so on.

Well, i got a phone call from Duc. He left the house at 8am with his dad. They were planning to sell Duc's car. He told me on the phone that he was heading home. They could not find the right customer with a right offer. They were hoping for more, since a new LNG tank has been installed to the car. Before i replaced the handset, he made me aware of the clock-change. 'Summer Time. Add one hour to the time'. I did not bring the manual for my watch with me, and i did have a rather difficult time correcting my digital watch. Somehow, after pressing few buttons at the same time, i managed to get it displaying the right time. Well, one thing done.

Next, i waited for Duc to come home. In the mean time, i tried to speak with his mum. She did put a lot of effort to understand me, since i don't speak Croatian. We talked about simple stuff. Few minutes later, she received a phone call from her mother, and I felt quite strange, the feeling you have when you know people were talking about you, but you simply could not understand.

Anyway, when Duc came home and we had our lunch. I remember having something like goreng pisang but it was pumpkin instead of banana. I was told that Croatians really like pumpkin, and this point was supported by an article i found in a croatian magazine. We had some other stuffs like soup, potato bread etc, and then off we went to the city centre.

The National Theatre

Zagreb was a huge city, considering the population of Croatia was only about 4.4 million. I think it was about the size of Bristol, but everything seemed so structured. Almost all buildings were built into grids, where roads and streets formed the squares all around the city. The city was not badly hit during the fight for independence against the Yugoslavian forces.

The main road inside the city was called the Green Way. The reason being is that if you can a green light on the west end of the street, you will get all green lights and pass through the city quickly, given that you time your car accurately. To both sides of this street, the modern city was developed with train squares, theatres, train station etc.

Trams In The City

Zagreb was equipped with reliable public transportation, comprising Trams, Buses and Bendy Buses. At a rather cheap rate (6.5 Kuna per journey), one can travel all the way across the city within one hour. There were few new trams in the city. Duc told me that Zagreb citizens collectively donated to the council spefically to buy this new trams.

First, we parked the car near the City Theatre building. From that spot, Duc walked swiftly through alleys and streets, which was quite difficult for me to follow. In no time, we arrived at a rather dodgy alley, and i had no idea why he had brought me to this place. Anticipating my question, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into a huge room, packed with few other croatians youth. Making a loud entrance, he introduced me to a few of his mates and members of the Miniatures Game Club.

I saw Fu trying to teach few kids of some tricks and rules of the game, while somewhere else, i saw Tomislav taking on a kid almost half of his size (most probably half of his age too).

'David vs Goliath'

Honestly, i was really impressed by the amount of time and effort that these people put into their hobby. Everything looked so realistic, and what impressed me most were the terrains that they used for the game. The bridge, crop fields, stone walls, shattered wooden house and many others. It seemed that everyone was so engrossed with his own business that i could roam around the room freely taking few pictures of some ridiculously-ugly-yet-carefully-painted creatures.

5:54 O ye who believe! if any from among you turn back from his Faith, soon will Allah produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him,- lowly with the believers, mighty against the rejecters, fighting in the way of Allah, and never afraid of the reproaches of such as find fault. That is the grace of Allah, which He will bestow on whom He pleaseth. And Allah encompasseth all, and He knoweth all things.